1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to devices used to prevent the removal of children from public facilities such as amusement parks, day care centers or shopping malls without the knowledge or consent of the child's parents. More specifically, the invention relates to apparatus for supplying unique identification codes that may be assigned to the child and the responsible adult accompanying the child, which codes must be compared and matched before the child will be permitted to leave the facility with the adult.
2. Background Information
It is perhaps the greatest fear of a parent to lose a child. It is, therefore, only with the greatest anxiety that many parents will leave their child in the custody of a stranger while enjoying adult recreation or other activities that could not be enjoyed when also burdened with the responsibility of caring for a child. Even going to a large public facility such as an amusement park may be stressful due to the knowledge that children have the ability to disappear when a parent looks away even for just a moment.
Yet every day many children are kidnapped or otherwise lured away by strangers unbeknownst to their parents or other adult supervisors. It is frequently only after the child has been missing for some time that the responsible adults realize that the child is absent, and then it may be too late to find the child if the person who took the child does not want the child to be found.
Presently, systems are available that permit the assignment of name tags to children, which may be used by child care personnel to identify the child when the adult responsible for that child comes to claim the child. Alternatively, an identification ticket or voucher may be given to the adult that must be presented before the child will be released. Both of these systems are subject to abuse, however. Obviously, in the former situation, an adult would only need to know the name of the child, and perhaps some distinguishing characteristic, in order to claim that child to the satisfaction of child care personnel. In the latter situation, the voucher may be lost or misappropriated, or a suitable facsimile produced, permitting an adult to claim the child of another based on the presentation of a forged or stolen voucher.
It is important to remember that very young children may lack the maturity to distinguish between familiar and strange adults. It may be very easy to lure an unsuspecting child away from a group of family or friends in a busy place with large crowds, such as a shopping mall or amusement park. Children may even walk off on their own. Yet parents will sometimes try to keep their children with them, even if they are distracted by adult amusements, because they do not feel secure in the knowledge that an available child care facility will provide adequate security for their child.
It is also known to place an electronically and visually detectable article of clothing on a child, especially an infant, that allows easy detection of a child that has been removed from a secure area. However, in the case of a large area such as an amusement park, a kidnapper may easily change the clothing, or even the appearance as by cutting off the hair, of a child before leaving the premises with the child. Such an article, when easily removed or disguised, provides no security unless personnel visually notice that the article is missing. Even then, an adult may persuade the personnel that the parent has taken ill or give some other plausible, albeit false, excuse for why they are attempting to leave with the child.
The child loss prevention system of the present invention overcomes difficulties described above and affords other features and advantages heretofore not available.